Austin City Council finally passed its new austerity budget. Approved on an 11-0 vote last Thursday, the budget removes close to $100 million in spending on public safety, homelessness, and other services that would have been provided by the earlier budget funded by Prop Q, the request to increase property taxes, which voters rejected earlier this month.
The adoption of the new budget was heartbreaking for over 30 activist groups that have advocated for years for a “Community Investment Budget.” The groups want the city to take money traditionally spent on police and reallocate it to a different kind of public safety – programs providing health care, violence intervention, rental assistance, and food access. The first element of the advocates’ proposal hasn’t happened – Council approved an expensive new police contract last year. And now, with Prop Q’s defeat, the second part of their proposal – the funding of community initiatives – is greatly scaled back.
Equity Action has been the lead messenger for the community groups. It called the newly approved budget “unacceptable” in a Nov. 23 press release. “[City leaders] chose to protect a department whose practices routinely harm the most vulnerable Austinites, instead of investing in the programs that actually keep our communities safe, healthy, and whole,” the press release read. “And it will only continue: the police contract passed by this Council last year guarantees APD even more funding next fiscal year.”…